THE LEGEND:
“The Cave of Salamanca” is a medieval legend that takes place in Salamanca (Spain), my city. One of the oldest European Universities (800 years) stands here and unorthodox knowledge flourished by the shadow of the high-wise-approved-by-the-church studies.
The dark place where those kind of matters were taught was the Cave of Salamanca, a cellar under a church where necromancy was explained to seven students during seven years. A priest (sometimes the Devil himself, sometimes taking the shape of a hand on a chair, a shadow or a talking brass head ) taught spells, omens, blasphemy and trickery. The classes costed no money, but one of the students would have to pay the bill for everyone when the classes ended… with his soul.
The chosen one, when the moment came, was Enrique de Villena, a marquis who descended from the kings of Castile and Aragon (Spain didn’t exist yet). But he tricked the Devil hiding in a large vessel. The Devil thought that he had became a wizard so powerful that he had disappeared using dark arts that did not bother in searching.
Finally, Enrique fled from the cave to the light, but the Devil grabbed his shadow (couldn’t grab Enrique, he ran so fast) and the marquis lost it.
Nowadays, if you visit Salamanca, you must be aware of a man without shadow walking by the old city. He is Enrique, who became inmortal thanks to the dark arts learned in the Cave. He still tries to recover his shadow, perhaps because he won’t rest in peace until he recovers it.